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Albany Times Union: Report: Hike anti-smoking funding

By CASEY SEILER State editorMonday, September 19, 2011

ALBANY -- A half-dozen groups working to reduce the rate of smoking in New York want to see an increase in the amount of state tobacco money spent on cessation programs and initiatives designed to stop kids and adults from taking up the habit.

Released Monday, their report acknowledges that the state -- specifically New York City -- has made great progress reducing smoking, which according to a recent state Health Department study dropped between 2000 and 2010 from 10.2 percent to 3.2 percent among middle school students, 27.1 percent to 12.6 percent among high schoolers and 33 percent to 23.1 percent among young adults. Among all adults, smoking dropped from 21.6 percent to 18 percent.

The report, however, notes that despite New York's high $4.35-per-pack excise taxes (plus an addition $1.50 tax in New York City) and funds from the 46-state settlement with large tobacco companies, only a slim fraction of those funds goes to tobacco control programs: 4 percent of an estimated total of $10.5 billion in tobacco dollars over the past six years, according to the report.

In 2007, the state spent $85.5 million on tobacco control programs out of $1.4 billion from taxes and the settlement; in 2012, those numbers are estimated to be $41.4 million out of $2.1 billion. The largest drop in state funding came in the 2010-11 fiscal year, when the programs were slashed by almost $25 million.

Blair Horner of the American Cancer Society said effective programs had been "systematically defunded." He said that when politicians make the choice to boost the cost of a pack of cigarettes to $9 or more, "the state has a moral obligation to smokers to help them to quit."

The advocates aren't looking for additional revenue from consumers, just a different allocation of the money pool.

"We need to put the money into where we can get the biggest bang for our buck," said Barbara Bartoletti of the League of Women Voters.

The report calls for boosting the funding in question to $254 million over the next few years, a number that reflects the median spending level recommended by the Centers for Disease Control. That would mean another $50 million in additional funding in each of the next four years.

Russ Sciandra, director of Tobacco-Free New York, said the state should easily be able to "reorder some priorities" to boost the funding to at least $100 million as a first step.

Also represented at Monday morning's press conference was the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association and the New York Public Interest Research Group.